U.S. lawmaker calls for closer ties against 'unholy alliance' of North Korea, China, Russia
Published: 26 Jun. 2025, 15:20
![Rep. Young Kim speaks in a video message during the annual Korean Peninsula Symposium hosted by Yonhap News Agency in Seoul on June 26. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/06/26/1d6add6e-fa05-4031-a10b-e4d8da94a279.jpg)
Rep. Young Kim speaks in a video message during the annual Korean Peninsula Symposium hosted by Yonhap News Agency in Seoul on June 26. [YONHAP]
A Korean American congresswoman on Thursday called for strengthening the trilateral South Korea-U.S.-Japan partnership in the face of what she called an "unholy alliance" among North Korea, China and Russia that threatens a free and open Indo-Pacific.
Rep. Young Kim made the call in a video message during the Korean Peninsula Symposium, hosted by Yonhap News Agency, on Thursday, noting the deepening military ties between North Korea and Russia through the war in Ukraine and China's increasing military exercises around Taiwan.
"We are living in unprecedented times, with North Korea, China and Russia's unholy alliance threatening a democratic, free and open Indo-Pacific," she said. "Now is not the time to pursue a policy of appeasement with our adversaries. We know that this approach has failed with North Korea."
"But the time is ripe to promote peace through strength. We must leverage our bilateral and multilateral partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region to advocate and advance our security, economic and people-to-people ties."
Kim stressed the need to maintain security cooperation among Seoul, Washington and Tokyo, noting the "historic" progress made in recent years.
"We must ensure the partnership only strengthens across administrations," she said.
Seoul has recently pushed to bolster trilateral security cooperation with Washington and Tokyo to better deter North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats amid an intensifying U.S.-China rivalry.
President Lee Jae Myung, who took office earlier this month, has reaffirmed his commitment to strengthening the three-way cooperation, while also seeking to improve ties with Pyongyang under a pledge to pursue "pragmatic" diplomacy.
Kim, who serves as the chair of the East Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee, said she looked forward to engaging with the new administration, noting the alliance between the United States and South Korea is "more important than ever."
Yonhap
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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